Making bread by hand is a great skill to have as a baker. Not only is it stress-relieving to mix and knead dough, but it’s simply nice to know that you don’t need any special equipment to make a delicious loaf. The book One Dough, Ten Breads: Making Great Bread by Hand is designed to teach you how to make breads easily, by hand in your own kitchen. It will walk you through the process from start to finish and is packed with great techniques and tips that will improve your bread-making skills whether you are a novice or have hand your hands in the dough before.
While you can pick and choose the recipes that you bake in some books, this one really is designed to be followed from beginning to end, as it starts with simple while bread and progresses to more complex sourdoughs. While you can skip around if you’re so inclined, you’ll get a better feel for the process of making breads by hand if you put the building blocks together in order. The book begins with a detailed description of tools and ingredients that bread-making requires, then advances to discussions of shaping bread doughs and building flavor with preferments. It’s like taking a very hands-on course in bread making.
The ten breads presented in this book are described as “foundation breads,” as they can serve as the base for dozens of different shapes and flavors of bread that you might want to make in the future. This book is all about teaching you the techniques to make great breads easily at home and while suggestions for different variations are offered, those are largely left up to you after you’ve baked your way through the book. If you’ve always wanted to learn more about bread baking, this book is a fun way to start. The recipes and techniques are very clearly written and easy to understand, especially if you’re new to the world of baking breads by hand.
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